Random feed errors in phased array antennas

摘要

In many cases accuracy of construction plays a significant role in antenna performance. In this paper an error analysis is studied, and it can be shown that tolerances can be accepted in some cases, making the antenna manufacturers business easier. The tolerances studied here, is random signal amplitude and random phase applied on antenna element feeds. A Gaussian distribution is considered most probable for amplitude errors while uniform and Gaussian distributions are examined for phase errors. Combined cases are examined also for both amplitude and phase errors. In the first part (Introduction) the characteristics of a phased array are briefly analyzed. In part 2 amplitude error analyses are given alongside simulation results. In part 3 and 4 the same is done for phase errors (Gaussian and uniform distribution). In parts 5 and 6 combined Gaussian-Uniform and Gaussian-Gaussian distributions for both amplitude and phase errors are given. In the conclusion (part 7) it is shown that there are certain limits where the antenna performance is acceptable, especially when military use is the designer's goal.